Newsletter 5/26

We began a character study in reading workshop this week.  Every partnership is reading books on the same character, examining that character's traits in each story.  We are understanding our characters by what they say, do and think, not just external factors.

We are returning to writing narrative texts in Writing Workshop, but now everyone's stories are so much more detailed!  We began our unit by making a plan for our story, using a five page packet of paper.  After writing for a few days, we re-read our stories to make sure that everything "looked right" and "sounded right".

We were busy doing math assessments all week long!  Everyone worked really hard.

In phonics this week we studied the "QU" combination of letters.

In Social Studies, we made a map of our classroom with it's own key and we also talked about Memorial Day.

Our pupae have become adult ladybugs!  We watched them crawl all over our Ladybug Land and eat raisins.  Then, on Friday, we set them free!

News & Notes:

• Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  Look for the whole Henry family at the parade and the Post 53 Food Fair!
• Book sleeves due on Tuesday.
• We will be having ZOO DAY next Friday, 6/2.  Have your child bring a small toy zoo animal to school.
• Kindergarten Field Day- 5/31, 1:45-3:15   Stop by for a bit to watch or stay for the whole thing!
• ALL PARENTS INVITED to our end of year celebration on June 14th from 2-3 pm.  We will be doing a craft, enjoying a treat and then some free play time with your child.  Save the date!

Mr. Warble reading a book

Studying characters

Our pupae are adults!  They are eating raisins.

Freeing the ladybugs!

Our class map

Newsletter 5/19/17

What an exciting week we've had!

We began the week going to the Library for a CompuChild activity.  We built LEGO robots that plugged into our computers and moved!  So cool.  We also learned about the stages of a ladybug's life cycle.  Our ladies came to us as larvae, but now we have many pupae in our Ladybug Land!  We are hoping they'll be adults when we return to school on Monday.  We made ladybug crafts in their honor.

On Tuesday we edited our persuasive writing piece and read books while searching for blends and digraphs.  We also went on a digraph hunt around the room.  Point out digraphs to your child while reading!  We are speedy at our addition facts, but needed a bit of subtraction support this week.  We also learned about "landmarks" in our geography lesson today.  Ask your child about landmarks in Darien!

On Wednesday we did a math Exemplar and read ladybug books.  We also played "I Spy" for symbols on various maps.  Perhaps you've heard of the colors on our classroom thermometer.  We watched it rise from green to yellow and even to orange this week (see photo below).

On Thursday we celebrated the end of our persuasive writing unit.  Your child's piece is in his/her backpack today.  Please ask to see your child's piece and give him/her a lot of praise!  Please send your child's piece back to school by next Wednesday. 

Friday we did an intense writing assessment and then relaxed by playing games with our volunteers! Thank you to Mrs. Donzeiser, Mrs. FitzPatrick and Mrs. Morgan for coming in.  Friday afternoon we had a blast visiting the Maker Faire with our 5th Grade Buddies.

News & Notes:

• Last Scholastic book order deadline is TODAY by 3:45 pm.
• Book sleeves due on Monday.
• Kindergarten Field Day- 5/31, 1:45-3:15   Stop by for a bit to watch or stay for the whole thing!
• ALL PARENTS INVITED to our end of year celebration on June 14th from 2-3 pm.  We will be doing a craft, enjoying a treat and then some free play time with your child.  Save the date!
• See post below for special theme days in June and what your child needs to do each day.
• We will be having a high school intern, Mr. Warble, begin volunteering in K next Monday.  We are so excited to welcome him back to Ox Ridge and back to my class!  Yes, he was in my kindergarten years ago...   

LEGO fun at CompuChild

Our robots kicked a ball!

Our outside thermometer is almost in the "orange"!

Our pupae

I Spy symbols on the map

Connect 4 with addition

Our larvae

Fun times ahead...

Dear Parents,

In the spirit of ending the year with a bang, I have included a schedule of fun (and educational) activities that we will be participating in the weeks to come.

                                                      J Sandy Henry

Wednesday, June 7^th Moving Up Day

• Get ready to visit the first grade teachers and classrooms!

Thursday, June 8^th Dinosaur Day

o   Bring in a favorite dino book (fiction or nonfiction) if you have one.

Friday, June 9^th Camp Day

• Bring your favorite stuffed animal to share stories with!
• Wear your summer camp outfit or favorite summer outfit.

Monday, June 12^th Baseball Day

• Wear your favorite baseball team shirt or jersey if you have one!

Tuesday, June 13^th Beach Day

• Bring a beach towel to read on

Wednesday June 14th Flag Day 

and Class Celebration

• Wear your red, white and blue!
• Parents welcome for a craft, snack and choice fun from 2-3 pm.

Thursday, 6/15^th Wipe Out Day

• Bring your team spirit and get ready to work with your classmates!

Friday, June 16th Last day of school

• The school year comes to an end!

Newsletter 5/12/17

I am amazed by how your young reader has grown!  I am in the process of assessing each student's reading level and will be updating book sleeves accordingly.  Once all students are assessed (end of May) I will adjust your child's level on Raz Kids so s/he can continue to read appropriate literature all summer long!  

We are wrapping up our persuasive writing unit and preparing to publish next week.  This week, we wrote opinion pieces, sharing our recommendations on books to read, toys to buy, restaurants to visit, etc.  Some students wrote about things to avoid, too!  We are learning to make very convincing cases.

We've been working on increasing our fact fluency in math, adding and subtracting within 5 as quickly as we can.  We also did an Exemplar this week where we combined amounts to form teen numbers.  We're continuing to examine teen numbers and break them apart into tens and ones.

Our science unit on Heredity and Evolution continued this week as we brought in our next living thing... LADYBUGS!  Yes, we have baby ladybugs in the classroom!  Ask your child about them.  They are currently in the larvae stage.  We can't wait to see them grow and change.

Besides our amazing field trip (see photos in post below), we also got ready for Mother's Day! Wishing all the mommies out there a wonderful weekend!  Make sure your child gives you your gift bag and card, please!

News & Notes:

• be on the lookout for multiple special occasions planned in June.  A note will be sent home next week with information on our THEME DAYS.
• Kindergarten Field Day- 5/31, 1:45-3:15   Stop by for a bit to watch or stay for the whole thing!
• ALL PARENTS INVITED to our end of year celebration on June 14th from 2-3 pm.  We will be doing a craft, enjoying a treat and then some free play time with your child.  Save the date!

Field Trip!

What a great trip we had yesterday!  We visited various habitats and animals and used a map to hike through the woods.  Thank you to Mrs. DiBenedetto and Mrs. Doody for joining us!

Off we go to the New Canaan Nature Center!

Visiting the birds of prey

Learning about Glory the bald eagle

Mrs. Henry's favorite picture.  Pure Kindergarten JOY!

Newsletter 5/5/17

We finished up our Avid Readers unit this week with wonderful lessons on reading poetry!  We read familiar poems and new ones, growing to love famous poets.  We learned how to read poetry with rhythm and emotion in our voices, visualizing them and even acting them out!  Now is the perfect age to introduce your child to poetry.  I highly recommend reading Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, or any of his work, aloud with your child.  Silly stuff!

In Writer's Workshop we learned how to include a friendly "or else" moment in our persuasive writing.  We also created a checklist to help us become more independent authors, because we are the bosses of our own writing!  Each student can decide when s/he is done with each piece, using the new checklist as a guide.

We focused on adding and subtracting within 5 and teen numbers this week.  Students played a card game where they had to solve addition and subtraction problems to move forward on a game board. They also played games with teen numbers, composing and decomposing teen numbers into tens and ones.  This strengthened numeral recognition and addition skills while helping students to become more familiar with place value.

We continued our science unit on living things, focusing on plants.  We acted out and sequenced how a plant grows, labeled the parts of a plant and learned each part's function.  We observed the growth of our apple tree outside the window, which now has blossoms and a nest!!  We actually watched a robin building the nest right in front of us.  Super exciting!  As always, we recorded everything we noticed and wondered about in our science notebook.

Our geography unit has been so much fun.  We did map puzzles this week and reviewed how to use a key and a compass rose.  We can't wait for our field trip next week!

News & Notes:

• Book sleeves are due on Monday.
• Our field trip is next Tuesday.  Please remember to pack a disposable snack and drink and wear sneakers.
• THANK YOU to everyone who generously donated funds and books to our classroom.  We are so excited about the new things to read!  

Studying various seeds and recording our findings

We love poetry!

What we can do with friends during "reading playdates"

Acting our poetry

Adding and subtracting to get the teddies to the picnic!